Baryta Muriatica

[muriate of baryta, chloride of barium.

This salt was discovered by Scheele in 1775. It was extensively used by the illustrious Hufeiand in scrofulous diseases, especially in inflamed conditions of the system (particularly of delicate and sensi- ble parts, as of the lungs and eyes), in painful ulcers, indurations which are disposed to inflame, and cutaneous affections.

We know that small doses produce increased secretions of urine, tendency to perspire and loose stool. Larger doses cause symptoms of irritation, nausea and vomiting, griping and purging, feverishness, dryness of the tongue, giddiness and muscular debility. Sometimes catarrhal discharges from the eyes, nose and ears are excited. The muscular debility sometimes amounts to paralysis and trembling.

A poisonous dose may produce convulsions, pain in the head, deafness and death. A post-mortem examination, in cases of poisoning, shows that the cerebral vessels are turgid with blood, the mucous membrane of the digestive canal is inflamed throughout its whole extent, with ex- traordinary- contraction of the colon down to the rectum ; the liver, spleen, lungs, and heart contain a thick, black blood.

According to Orfila and Brodie, the muriate of baryta first acts upon the brain and nervous system and upon the heart, causing paralysis of the brain and coagulation of the circulatory fluid.

Guided by the known effects of the muriate of baryta, we may recommend it for

PARALYSIS of the upper and lower limbs, with acute pain in the limbs; it is particularly in experiments upon animals that these effects have been witnessed ; how far they may serve us as guides in

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the treatment of paralytic conditions which may befall the human species, will have to be determined by further experience ;

STRICTURE of the colon and rectum, a result developed by a poisonous dose ;

SCROFULOUS SWELLINGS, induration and inflammation of glands, also of the testicles.

A boy, two years old, suffered from general emaciation ; the neck was fairly cov- ered with glandular enlargements of the size of an egg, the abdomen was bloated and hard, the seventh and eighth vertebrae were enlarged, both ears discharged fetid pus, the tongue was coated, appetite small ; craving for dry wheat bread ; constipation of the bowels, relieved only by the use of the syringe; the stools were as hard as stone and almost white ; urine yellowish and fetid ; oedema of the feet.

Prescribed baryta mur., 3d trit. , twenty grains dissolved in four spoonfuls of water ; one small spoonful three times each day. Improvement- set in in two weeks; the child became more cheerful, appetite increased ; urine looked better. In three months the child was cured, even of the enlargement of the vertebrae. (Altmueller in Allg.

Horn. Zeitg., Vol. xxiv., p. 214.)

A girl, a year and a half old, was covered all over with boils; the entire head was one thick crust, of fetid odor ; there were abscesses behind the ears which discharged a fetid pus ; exceedingly offensive discharge, resembling in odor foul cheese, from both ears ; both upper eyelids were greatly swollen ; the eyeballs were violently in- flamed ; photophobia, causing the child to lie on the face ; the lower abdomen was enlarged; diarrhoea of thin, watery, bad-smelling stools; oedema of both feet. Pre- scribed baryta mur.3, sixteen grains in four table-spoonfuls of water, three teaspoonfuls each day. Discharged cured in three months. [J bid.)

INFLAMMATION of the mucous coats of the stomach and in- testines with violent colic, diarrhoea, feverish flashes, flushes in the face, efforts to vomit.

PTYALISM, with looseness of the teeth, swelling of the salivary glands and palate, odor from the mouth, resembling mercurial fetor; it may therefore prove antidotal to simple, uncomplicated mercurial ptyalism.

IRRITABLE BLADDER; Baryta has caused violent and con- tinual urging to urinate, the urine very frequently went off involun- tarily and with a good deal of pain. Baryta also causes increased, but painless, secretion of urine, which deposits a whitish sediment.

SCROFULOUS PHTHISIS, complicated with herpes and swell- ing of the testicles. A patient who was afflicted with these disorders was cured in three months ; the case is reported by Frank.

.ENLARGEMENT OF THE LIVER in scrofulous subjects.

INDURATION OF THE PANCREAS ; the following case of which is reported in Frank's Magazine :

A man of thirty years was attacked several times a day, and also in the night, by anxiety, and such an oppression for breath that he had to roll on the floor like an epi- leptic patient. He had to sit up all the time, with his head bent forward, and profuse discharge of mucus from the mouth; it was a sort of saliva which ran out of the mouth in large quantities on the least attack of the distress. In the left side, below

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the stomach, an induration was felt from which the paroxysms proceeded according to the patient's own statement and sensations. In two months the induration, ptyalism and oppression were removed.

SCROFULOUS ERUPTIONS, crusty tetter, scaly herpes, tinea capitis.

DROPSY after scarlet fever ; it excites diuresis, and may remove the difficulty by establishing a critical discharge of the fluid.

ANTIDOTAL TREATMENT.— The antidotes to this salt are the sulphates, which form therewith an insoluble sulphate of baryta. You may employ the sulphate of soda or magnesia. Of course, the poison should be removed from the stomach as speedily as possible, by means of an emetic.